Heretofore substantial money losses have occurred in connection with the use of money receiving devices employed in connection with self-service parking lots for automobiles. The cost of providing an attendant for parking lots is such that the same are noncompetitive with unattended or self-service parking lots for automobiles.
Most parking lots for automobiles are provided in noncommercial areas because of the cost of land or are provided on areas where buildings have been torn down and ordinarily the area is one where there is not much pedestrian traffic present which is a factor in the attempt to make the money-receiving devices theftproof. Also, the fact that there are any number of people coming and going which are parking automobiles is another factor of providing a number of people who do not have to account for their presence or activitiies. All in all, the problem of preventing pilfering or stealing from self-service money containers employed in connection with automobile parking lots has become a very serious problem. Heretofore, most parking lot coin-receiving devices used inclined money-receiving slots and it has become quite common for criminals to use wires and the like to "fish out" coins or moneys deposited in such slots and the losses have become very substantial.
Applicant has provided a coin or money slot in an upper surface, which surface when in use, lies in a horizontal plane. This horizontal surface is provided with a plurality of money or coin-receiving slots therethrough, which may number up to such as a hundred or more. Each of these slots of applicant is disposed directly above its own vertical passageway and thus, coins or paper money deposited through a slot drop directly by gravity to the bottom of the passageway associated with a particular slot. Thus, the prior art practice of some in "fishing out" deposited coins and paper money is completely frustrated and in practice a substantially foolproof and theftproof money-depositing device has been provided by devices of the present invention.